Officers from St. Cyr went into battle wearing white-plumed shakos and white gloves; it was considered "chic" to die in white gloves. An unidentified French sergeant kept a diary: "the guns recoil at each shot. Night is falling and they look like old men sticking out their tongues and spitting fire. Heaps of corpses, French and German, are lying every which way, rifles in hand. Rain is falling, shells are screaming and bursting-shells all the time. Artillery fire is the worst. I lay all night listening to the wounded groaning-some were German. The cannonading goes on. Whenever it stops we hear the wounded crying from all over the woods. Two or three men go mad every day.
( Barbara W. Tuchman )
[ The Guns of August ]
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